


waiting for Harder Times

by IwriteDreams



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender, vldr
Genre: Allura is a badass, F/M, Fluff, Sick Fic, shallura - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-26
Updated: 2017-07-26
Packaged: 2018-12-07 04:58:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,095
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11616372
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IwriteDreams/pseuds/IwriteDreams





	waiting for Harder Times

It’s as if an elastic band that was small enough to cut off the circulation of her fingertip was stretched all the way around her head, the pressure too crippling to be anything but agonising. Her chest bones feel like they were being pressed into oblivion and an odd weighty sense of liquid is dripping from her fingertips. She’s more sick than she thinks she ever has been in her life, but now is the last time for her to be out of commision, even for an instant.

It takes her 34 dobaces to hoist herself out of her bed. Not that she’d been sleeping. Not when Shiro is on the other side of the Galaxy trying to find Pidge's brother and his friend. Something in her gut told her that he wasn’t going to find him so soon, and it weighed on her mind almost as much as the sickness did, as did the constant worry for Shiro’s safety. At least the mice had kept her company in the night. It was their little secret, but the mice entertained Allura’s little fantasies when she couldn’t sleep, trying to simulate what Shiro might say to her if he had been there in place of the five little guys.

She’d dozed off a couple of times but the room was spinning around her, even though she hadn’t moved in what felt like forever, and her head belabored her. It had been another sleepless night, and even though she felt both cold and hot at the same time, and would love nothing more then a release of unconsciousness it never did grace her. Only when Coran had knocked at her door, asking if she was alright and informing her that the others would be awake soon did she somehow manage to move.

She upset the mice sleeping on her pillow my mistake, having been too downtrodden to notice them. They bounced up, squeaking angrily, the largest swearing in little squeaks before pouting, and bounding off in frustration, even as Allura tried to choke out an apology. Maybe they would’ve forgiven her if she had apologized, because as it stands, she had no voice left in her throat, and it all came out as wordless grumbles, rather than an expression of sorrow.

She doesn’t even care to change outfits, if she walks into that dining hall in her sleeping gown, she doubts anyone will have anything to say about it- and if they do somebody else can deal with it. Shiro will return later that day, and while all the members of Voltron are important, she gets a little selfish when it comes to setting aside time to spend with him, and she needs to be okay when he returns. She tells herself it's to keep her head on straight, but she isn’t sure she believes that. Nobody does. Besides, they were fast approaching a couple of very hostile galaxies, and she feared for her paladins safety. THey would be needing all the last minute training they could pack into their brains now, and it was up to her to supervise the training. She couldn’t let them down now, not like this. SHe needed to do her very best of it had the potential to cause a casualty. 

She shuttered, and not just because of her legs that were filled with mercury from illness. Or two casualties. It was entirely plausible. Even more reason to move, Allura. If you want to save to Universe I’d say getting out of your room this morning is a humble quiznacking start.

Somehow, she finds it in herself to stuff her small feet into some indoor slippers and trudge down the hallway, every step almost a battle field in itself. The hallways are too long, She realises. She’s never noticed it until now, her step wobbling, and feeling prone to sinking into the floor like quicksand with every passing moment. Keeping her eyes open was quite a task as well. Everything felt distorted around her, like the walls were buckling in and out like bellows, high and mighty around her.

“Um… Princess? You know you passed the dining hall, right?”

She swears that she’s never been more startled in her life, her little jump in composure was almost enough for her feet to actually leave the floor. 

She looked up suddenly to see Lance, paladin of the blue Lion, in uniform with Keith standing behind him. Lance looks genuinely confused, tanned, freckled face twisted into something of concern, while the red clad paladin a few steps back looked grumpy and frustrated, a grouchy snarl directed at the floor. Allura almost asks if they spent the night in Lance's room together, but she feels like Keith might not take well to this question, and that she doesn't need to ask to know that Keith's room is in another hallway entirely.

“What?” She has to ask again, because she’s forgotten the question. 

“The dining hall was back there.” Lance recites, glancing back at Keith who looks even more uncomfortable now that Allura has acknowledged their existence. 

“I knew that!” She lies. “I just… I was coming to get you up actually.”

“Allura.” Keith mumbled. “We’re up 2 hours early. Or… Vargas or whatever.”

“Did you need yours truly for something?” Lance asked, batting his eyelashes, something he did frequently and Allura still cannot decipher the meaning of. SHe wonders if it's another sort of earth mating call, ‘flirting’ Shiro once referred to it, and wonders how Keith could stand having his mate do such a thing with other people.

“No I just…” She suddenly dropped off her speech as the hallways jerked up under her feet, and she stumbled, almost collapsing.

“Allura!’ Lance yelped, but Keith, bless him, was faster to catcher her, even from a few steps behind, righted her, then stepped back once more, before continuing to scowl at the floor. “Allura, are you okay?” Lance asked, “You just… you know- I’m pretty sure you’re not one to collapse at random points in time.”

“I’m fine.” She insists, done with this conversation before it even began. “Now you guys should get the others up and head to the dining hall immediately, we have a lot to do today team.”

“But were up so early-”

 

“Did I stutter, Lance?” She asks, before whipping around as best she could without falling on her face, because just because she could hardly stand does not mean that she could afford to lose her intimidation factor. Not by a longshot. 

Lance said something more quietly to Keith, and Allura was slightly curious what it was exactly it was he had to mention, but she brushed it off for the time being, instead focusing on the strangely daunting task of making it into the dining hall in one piece. She’s about halfway to her destination when Coran finally catches up to her his step and voice an annoncement of his arrival.

“Ah! Princess! Good morning!” He chuckles to himself for no apparent reason other then he’s Coran. He looks so chipper and exciting, and Allura’s counting down the days until that facade breaks. She’d bet half the castle that it’s in the presence of Lance. Allura has already warned Iran not to get to close to the paladins, not when they really could perish woefully any day now, but Coran sees so much of himself in Lance, and there’s no dettering him now. Besides, it’s not like she took her own advice on that either. “You were late to get up this morning- is everything alright?”

Leave it to Coran to be so nitpicky from the start. He truly is a father figure to everybody on the ship, not just Lance, but her as well. She decides he’d blow it out of proportion if she told him how she was feeling, but she would hate to lie so instead she mumbles a small “I suppose I may be coming down with a tad of a household sickness.”

Coran stops. “Princess, what do you mean household sickness?”

 

“I mean exactly that Coran.” She sighed. “It’s not to worry about, just thought you should be aware.” Nothing to worry about. 

“Princess, I know how you absolutely love to lowball all of your troubles, if you need me to extract Shiro early so he can run today's trainings for you i’d be more then willing to help you with that.”

“Coran, it’s totally fine. If it wasn’t I would’ve said so.” And it is fine. For now at least, it has to be fine, or what kind of lead would she honestly be?

Keith and Lance remerge with the others just after Allura sits down with a hot tea. They all have heavy steps and tired eyes, but Allura’s not even sure if she’s still alive. A little sleep deprivation isn’t going to kill them. A lack of training and a good leader on a warfield will. It’s her every responsible//… ill… iliitty…

“Princess?”

She’s dozing off again, and her head is pounding in time with Pidge syllables as they speak. “YOu don’t look so good. You okay? Why did we need to be up so early?”

Allura takes a moment, before she can’t even find it in herself to respond. SHe simply tipped her head back, sucks in a deep breath, ignores the anchors of her body and mind, and shakes her head. PIdge takes the hint as they back off. Coran however, doesn’t let it go unnoticed, as he rolls his eyes before calling out:

“Okay everyone, chop chop, as you say, the training room is ready for your use, I will be there shortly to supervise you.”

 

Hunk opened his mouth like he was about to ask why Allura wouldn’t be there instead, but seeing as nobody else had anything to say, he let the words die in his mouth, shoveling the last of his food off his plate, and scrambling after everybody, who was already departing. 

...that was a fast meal. In fact, Allura didn’t remember anybody grabbing any food at all.

“You dozed off.” Coran informed her, apparently reading her mind now. “Allura, you are not okay. I am going to make you rest.”

“Coran I’m fine, I really am.”

“You can’t fool your father, Allura. Well, pretend father- anyways- you will only come out of your room today to welcome Shiro home, because I know there's no stopping you from doing that. If you want to make time with him, he’s going to you, not the other way around, and I will bring you meals, you understand?”

“Yes Coran.” She huffs, she tries to stand up, gets about half of her weight on her legs before they almost give out, and she swallows a gasp. SHe tries again, and only then is she able to gain some semblance of a wobbly posture. Better than not being able to stand at all though, if that were the case Coran would have a fit.

It seems like it was trivial anyways, because Coran puts an arm about her protectively shoulder anyway and walks her back. She tries to put together sentences but doing that as she half consciously stumbles along the hallway, feeling like she’s halfway melted and dead at the same time she’s trying to remember everybody’s training regimen really isn’t the easiest thing to do. 

She doesn’t remember anything past that, honestly. All she know is the feeling of her chest having blinked out of existence, and the throbbing of her head until she’s unconscious, and even then everything is beating her down. 

The next thing she remembers is the knocking about being doubled up, and she stretches open her eyes, entire body twice its usual weight, and realises it’s somebody knocking on the door. 

“Allura?” Come a quaking voice. “Are you okay? I’m back.”

“Shiro…?” SHe doesn’t mean to sound like a question. SHe also doesn’t mean for it to sound as weak as it comes out, but she doesn't care anymore because Shiro apparently took it as validation to enter her room. The door swings open to the black polident, in armour, with a bruise on his cheek, stone hand holding the doorknob firmly, even if his dark eyes are fogged in fear and concern.

Seeing as Shiro's already looking rather down, and didn’t throw a hissy fit the moment he set foot beyond the threshold, or immediately mentions that Allura didn’t greet him in the port proves to her sheared mind that Coran’s probably already told him. 

Shiro doesn’t even let her sit up, which is wonderful because she isn’t sure she could, even if her life depended on it, and sits at the bottom of her bed, below her feet, looking up at her full of care.

“I missed you.” She admitted. It’s a far better thing to say then “Every so often I wondered if you were dead, and it made me want to die by extension.”

“I missed you too.” He said, his way of saying back, “I’m fine, and I know that I need to come back every time I leave here, I promise you I’m not going to risk too much.”

Allura can’t even think of anything to say really, so she just stares at Shiro’s muscles, under a skin tight uniform, looks at a handsome build face, tracing her eyes over his scars, and looking at the way his real hand is grabbing over his metal ones in concern. 

“Look- Allura if you’re not feeling well we should get you in a healing pod. I’m really worried, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you thins out of commision.”

 

“I don’t need a healing pod, I’m fine. I should go check on the others…” She isn’t exactly sure why she was so opposed to the idea. Maybe it’s pride, maybe it’s stubbornness. Maybe it’s simply her dignity. She remembered as a little girl she’d vowed that she would never need a man of any kind in her life. Never one who babied her or sheltered her while he stole all the glory and opportunities from her fingertips. She never thought she would need somebody like Shiro. “I don’t need help.”

She tries to sit up, which is even more of a task then she thought it would be, waking up feeling even worse makes her think even more so that resting in the first place was a mistake, she should’ve supervised training and-

Before she knows it, Shiro’s pushing her back into bed. “Allura… I already know what you’re thinking.” He says, and she believes it. She’s nothing if not a focused leader. “And please, you really do need to rest. Me and Coran are just as capable as you are if we work together and follow your instructions.”

“Shiro I’m fine.” But she knows that he’s right, and won’t give it up now. Besides, she can’t sit up and can barely talk, how much of a fight could she really put up?

Shiro gets out another half sentence of complaint before he stops, knowing she isn't even listening to him anymore, and that he’s probably won this before he even began. 

“I’m going to go get the healing pod ready.” He tells her. “I’m seriously worried.”

“Shiro I told you not too!” But she sounds more like a child rather than anything, complaining about medicine like this, her voice high, and she immediately regrets her informal appearance and approach to the situation.

She’s trying to sit up again, and this time he lets her, almost triumphant, until she feels him lean in closer. The first time they had kissed Allura didn’t know what it was, an earth way of telling somebody you love them more then anybody, in a romantic sense, and she must admit that it felt amazing. This time Shiro was holding her shoulders in place, and even though her head resounded with the beats of a gong, and her vision was weak and watery and any movement was close to impossible, everything seemed to meld together with Shiro’s lips touching hers. There’s something so hypnotic about the saliva that clings to their lips, the rhythmic way they come together, only to pull apart, adjust, then come together all over again. Hands grasping at her shoulders tightly.

He briefly paused after a few wonderstruck moments, eyes still closed, mouth not even half an inch away from hers, sharing the same breath. “Well too bad, I’m- I’m the worst, and I’m- I’m going to get you a healing pod.”

He had barely so much as finished the sentence did he start kissing her all over again. It’s relaxed and quiet, and Allura knows that Shiro won’t stop showing this kind of care, as bad as she feels accepting the help. She should work on it now, and deal with it later. 

It’s not like she would want to put up much of a fight anyways.

___

Shiro turns to Coran immediately after the door of the pod seals itself shut. “Are you sure everything is going to be okay?”

 

Coran is hunched over the screen, humming quizzically as he reads up on how long it’s going to take. “She was lowballing the illness entirely. It’ll take a quintet or so, but there should be absolutely no problems.”

“Are you sure?” Because honestly, looking at Allura in the pod, you can just tell that she was falling apart, and the last thing he needs right now are any last minute, terrifying surprises.

Coran just blinks in surprize. “I already said- didn’t I sport? She’s going to be fine… my, you’re quite a worry wort- aren't you?”

Shiro almost growled in annoyance, but he was just tired and anxious, and Coran was the person Shiro wanted to take that out on the least. “I’m something like that, yeah.”

“You’re worried about the princess it’s sweet!”

Shiro wanted nothing less, however, than for Coran to have a foot in his love life. He could just image Coran now walking in on him and Allura and he’s going to stop that right there.

“You really do love her, don’t you.?

“I don’t know what to do with her.” He said, dodging the question at large. “She’s reckless and feisty, and hard to keep up with…”

Coran shot him some weird glance that informed Shiro that he was buying none of it.

“I can’t imagine what I’d do without her.”

Coran tapped healing pod. “It’s a good thing you won’t have to worry about it.”

Shiro nodded. “Indeed it is.”


End file.
